[UN-1 12, or f. prec.]
† 1. Lack of understanding. Obs.–1
1616. Donne, Serm., V. 466. God shall suffer him to settle … in an insensibleness and an unintelligibleness … of his own Condition.
2. The quality or fact of being unintelligible; unintelligibility.
1678. Allestree, Lively Oracles, viii. § 14. 201. We ordinarily have so much candor, as to impute their unintelligibleness to our own ignorance.
1736. Butler, Anal., II. vii. 347. The obscurity or unintelligibleness of one part of a prophecy.
1754. Edwards, Freed. Will, II. ii. 38. The Thing in Question seems to be forgotten, or kept out of Sight, in a Darkness and Unintelligibleness of Speech.
1832. H. Melvill, in Preacher, III. 222/1. If it is unintelligible, it is the unintelligibleness of the Scriptures, and not of the commentator.
1877. E. R. Conder, Basis Faith, ii. 69. The supposed unintelligibleness … of the doctrine.
